August 27 & 30, 2013
Former heads of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau have raised objections to the Abe Cabinet’s intention to revise the conventional government interpretation of the Constitution so that Japan can exercise the right to collective self-defense.
The right to collective self-defense is an idea to enable a country to wage war abroad together with its allies, having nothing to do with the defense of its own country. Successive Japanese governments have maintained that exercising the right to collective self-defense is unconstitutional.
The Cabinet Legislation Bureau is a government body enabled to examine legislative bills and draft treaties, as well as offer its opinion regarding legal issues to cabinet members, including the prime minister.
Sakata Masahiro, the former director-general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau during the second and third Koizumi administrations in the 2000s, said in the Asahi Shimbun on August 9, “The issue of the right to collective self-defense affects the notion of pacifism, one of the three major principles of the Japanese Constitution. Is it really right to disregard the past consensus built in the Diet?”
Yamamoto Tsuneyuki, who was removed from the position in early August, said at a news conference on August 20, “I think it is difficult to change the constitutional interpretation that has been formed through discussions over more than half a century under the current Constitution.”
Miyazaki Reiichi, the ex-chief of the bureau during the first Abe administration, stated at an interview with Jiji Press on August 27 that the revision of the constitutional interpretation will entirely lack a legal basis. “The government had better not attempt to change the interpretation; I would say it is impossible,” he added.
According to polls published on August 26 by major newspapers such as Asahi, Mainichi, Nikkei and Kyodo, more than half of the respondents surveyed expressed opposition to Japan’s exercise of the collective self-defense right.
The right to collective self-defense is an idea to enable a country to wage war abroad together with its allies, having nothing to do with the defense of its own country. Successive Japanese governments have maintained that exercising the right to collective self-defense is unconstitutional.
The Cabinet Legislation Bureau is a government body enabled to examine legislative bills and draft treaties, as well as offer its opinion regarding legal issues to cabinet members, including the prime minister.
Sakata Masahiro, the former director-general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau during the second and third Koizumi administrations in the 2000s, said in the Asahi Shimbun on August 9, “The issue of the right to collective self-defense affects the notion of pacifism, one of the three major principles of the Japanese Constitution. Is it really right to disregard the past consensus built in the Diet?”
Yamamoto Tsuneyuki, who was removed from the position in early August, said at a news conference on August 20, “I think it is difficult to change the constitutional interpretation that has been formed through discussions over more than half a century under the current Constitution.”
Miyazaki Reiichi, the ex-chief of the bureau during the first Abe administration, stated at an interview with Jiji Press on August 27 that the revision of the constitutional interpretation will entirely lack a legal basis. “The government had better not attempt to change the interpretation; I would say it is impossible,” he added.
According to polls published on August 26 by major newspapers such as Asahi, Mainichi, Nikkei and Kyodo, more than half of the respondents surveyed expressed opposition to Japan’s exercise of the collective self-defense right.
